Secondary Navigation

Re: [beemonitoring] More bee tips

... Two (or all three) of the problems above are avoidable concerns; pieces of paper that have been written on with pencil are the best possible whirlpak

Message 1 of 3
, Mar 11, 2013

>if you use whirlpaks to keep samples in from pan trap arrays,
>pre-label them first before going in the field, it'll make running
>your line go a lot faster;
>
>the wide apperature opening funnels used for adding oil to your car
>engine work good for pouring bees into whirl paks, drying tubes, etc.
>Any auto parts store should have them;
>
>test your field labels before using them, rub your finger on them to
>make sure the ink doesn't rub off (we barely avoided a disaster a week
>ago);

Two (or all three) of the problems above are avoidable concerns;
pieces of paper that have been written on with pencil are the best
possible whirlpak labels (we often get whirlpaks sent to us by
researchers where some ethanol leaked and obliterated the writing on
the outside of the bags). Nothing dissolves pencil, and it does not
rub off easily.

If the paper you write on is one of those paper paint-straining
funnels, then everything is even simpler; you pour the trap samples
thru the filter, write with pencil on the filter itself, then stick
the filter and its contents into a whirlpak. Done properly, this
technique can be used to facilitate trap-lining the same set of traps
over time without having to refill any, or overfilling the whirlpaks
- run from one end of the trap-line to the other, pouring the liquid
thru the filter into an empty trap, and using the same filter for the
same trap each time. We use this procedure when we do BioBlitz
traplines (the only trick there is that the paint strainers will
sometimes let Mymarids and Trichogrammatids through).